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Standing in line to cancel XM Radio

I’m writing this while on hold for an XM Radio “customer service” representative. My first call was answered by a gentleman who could not figure out how to pull up my account. I gave him everything but my gene sequence. We finally gave up and I called back later.

This time I spoke with a lady who is progressing very nicely with her English lessons. I explained that I wanted to cancel my service. Nothing wrong with it, I’m just not using it enough to justify the $13/month. I told her to check the iPod box on her screen.

She insisted she couldn’t deactivate my account. I would need to speak with XM’s “Deactivation Department” (can’t be good when you have a special department). That was 15 minutes ago and I’m still listening to some depressing jazz channel.

For the record, I tried to cancel on the XM website. Never found a page or link for that little chore. Which makes me conclude you can tell a lot more about a company or service by how easy they make it cancel, than by ease of sign-up.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to quickly route calls like mine to someone with enough savvy (and English) to save the subscription? Maybe offer a cheaper or better plan? Or just fix a problem if there is one?

UPDATE: After more than two hours (over three calls) of Hold Hell, I went to Plan B. Canceled the MasterCard XM hits every three months. I got the card for just this eventuality. A little hassle updating the few services I had on that card but well worth it. PS: Seems like I’m not the only one getting this little dance.

If anyone at XM Radio is reading this… I probably owe you for a few days or weeks service. Since the card is cancelled your best bet is to call my Customer Service number (1-800-FUCKYOU). We’re experiencing unusually long hold times because we don’t give a shit how long you have to hold. But the wait will be pleasant because I’ve plugged in my iPod and set it to shuffle.

UPDATE: So I post my little rant on my lunch hour and it’s now 3 p.m. Just did a Google Blog Search for “xm radio” and there it is. #3 of 135,000+ results.

UPDATE: 2/16/09 – Following a number of comments on this post, I went back to the XM website to look for the number some say they found there. And found it with one click under YOUR ACCOUNT. I can’t swear I didn’t miss that during the half hour I searched the site. But I’d wager $100 if there were a way to do so.

31 thoughts on “Standing in line to cancel XM Radio”

Even though my credit card expired, they continue to send me bills. I have called numerous times to cancel but they refuse to do it. Instead, they continue to bill me through the mail and call relentlessly for the money. I am on hold now for at least 45 min. This is a problem that every XM subscriber should be aware of.

So… my husband called in December to cancel. He waded through the website and found like many that there was no “cancel subscription” option. So he called the 800#, waded thru useless menus, finally got a person, the person spent five straight minutes harassing hub to sign up for this or that, he persistently responded “no” and “cancel all”. Next month, we’re charged. I go on their website in January and fill out the customer … ahem… CARE … ahem… form. Next month, we’re charged again. Today I sent a letter to Customer Care: Sirius Satellite Radio, 1221 Avenue of the Americas; New York, NY 10020. I also filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en) AND I faxed my credit union about the unauthorized charges. The credit union said they would keep XM from charging to our debit card. That was a pleasant surprise. With Health Clubs and our dish provider, we had to cancel the cards to keep them from charging our account any further.

Thanks for the 877-967-4672 number. I had been through the same h3ll as everyone else here, calling the 800 # published on XM’s website, only to hold indefinitely then get disconnected. Tried pushing ‘0’ and got a live person overseas who connected me to ‘cancellation dept.’ only to have same thing happen. When calling the 877 #, held for about 8 minutes, but got a pleasant and professional person who helped me in only about 5 minutes with my cancellation and account credit. Should be that simple for everyone, every time.

Yes! I had been given the run around and put on hold three times only to have the calls drop. Then I called the number posted above (877) 967-4672 and got through immediately and was able to cancel my subscription in less than 10 minutes…I logged back onto my account online and it’s gone! Thanks so much!!

Just cancelled. Used the corporate customer relations number. XM had my account all screwed up. They deactavated my account and would not waive the $14 reactivation fee. I asked if they could not or would not. They said they could do it, however, go %^&$ yourself. (not quite in those terms) I’ve been with them since inception and had up to 5 radios at one time. Kept cancelling a radio every time they raised the family plan prices. Very short sited company. At least I saved a few hours on hold finding this number ont this blog.

I’ll second just about everything here. I had a little extra time to try the regular number (1-800-XM-RADIO) that XM asks you to call as they note on their website. Called it, got transferred a couple times to people who spoke poor English at best, jazz waiting music was there for about 15 minutes followed by silence but the call was still connected and eventually call was dropped after about 30 minutes of waiting.

Called the 1-877-967-4672 number. Choose option #4 (other questions) from the initial list. English speaking woman picked up and transfered me. I was on hold for a total of about 6 minutes with the wonderful jazz music, spoke to a guy who spoke clear English, offered me a 5 month free discount, I declined and he ended my service with no further questions. Now the only thing I will worry about is getting charged by “mistake.” If that happens I know to call the 1-877-967-4672 number. Do the same if you need help from XM or want to cancel XM.

XM has a few strategies to try and wear customers out so that they keep subscribing: 1) no deactivation ability in their online account. 2) upon reaching a salesperson, they’ll “transfer” you to another dept at which your call will be dropped and you’ll have to call again. 3) if 2 happens you’ll be on hold for a while getting to that dept. 4) they can’t either get into your account or their “system is down” temporarily and you’ll have to call back to cancel. 5) the standard “deals” to keep you subscribing –if you go for this, make sure you get at least 3 months free. They’ll keep uping their offer to keep you. Or, they offer $6.95 for a year. 6) if you’re successful in cancelling –watch out for this: they keep charging your credit card and you’ll go through this entire thing again trying to get your money back. So, if you’re planning on cancelling, try and remove your credit card information off their system *before* you cancel.

They now have an option to directly go to account cancellation, after you call the main number 1-800-967-2346. Told them can’t afford it. Politely declined offers. Was credited 6 months of my remaining contract.

Called the above number after being on hold numerous times for around 6-8 hours over the last week. Every time I would say I want to cancel they would transfer me to someone else. When that person would answer, I would immediately be disconnected. SO FRUSTRATING.
After calling the above number, I was able to cancel in roughly 6 minutes with no hassle.

Rec’d a call from “CCA”, apparently XM’s collection department. The lady was very pushy stated that my account was past due & owed them $50 some bucks. I told her that she/they were in error. I chose not to renew at the end of my contract, which was paid in full up front. The company tried several times to charge a card that had expired and the caller went on to say that I was being charged a “disconnect fee that I may not have been aware of”…?? – !
I advised her not to call again… :-(
BTW, they called from an “unknown” number.
Oh well! I went back and read my orignal contract from several years ago and there is only one mention of “disconnect fee” under section 6 that refers to section 5 that does not detail any verbage or fee’s regarding “disconnect fee’s”…

Thanks for the 877-967-4672! Canceled within minutes after being on hold for 20 minutes without speaking to a human. They did ask how I got the number, so hopefully it won’t be changed/taken away from us.

I managed to cancel today. They do not make it easy. I got put on hold for an amazingly log period of time and another time they just hung up in the middle of the call. Nice.
Actually, 3 months ago when I signed onto the “Best of Sirius” package, I asked that the account not be auto-charged to my credit card at the end of three months. They said that wouldn’t be a problem. Today the credit card bill comes and guess what? They charged me for another three months. It took me three calls, lots of waiting on hold, a couple of hang-ups on their end and I finally got canceled and refunded the money they charged but shouldn’t have.
They’re about to go bankrupt. Good riddance. I’ll be honest… I liked having XM. But the credit card charge and what I had to go through to get it refunded was the last straw. I have no use for a company like that.

Fantastic information. 877-967-4672 answered my prayers. After attempting to cancel in December ’08 I was talked into staying for 3 additional months for no charge. Unfortunately, they continued to charge me my monthly fee. Tried to disconnect again this evening and was unsuccessful. Found your comments and have successfully been disconnected and credited for the months that were supposed to be ‘free’. Thanks for the information.

My call was a smooth 5 1/2 minutes. 877-967-4672 worked like a champ. Barely waited on hold at all. Briefly offered special deals, but I declined them with no further pressure.
Of course, only time will tell if anything goes amiss with my prorated refund and/or cancellation, but I have a good feeling so far.

I looked around and couldn’t find it anywhere on the site. I then went to Google and did an advanced search of the number within their domain, no results found.
Your search – “877-967-4672 site:xmradio.com” – did not match any documents.
So, finding this blog and the number after not being able to cancel online was a big help to me.
JD

I too used the Corporate Customer Relations Dept. number (877-967-4672) posted above to cancel my XM subscription. I was offered two months free on two XM radios to “think about it”, but told the representative that I’d like to go ahead and cancel now. She was agreeable and told me to make note of her extension number. She said if I decided to return at some point she’d waive the activation charges. I thanked her for that, she canceled my account and refunded me just under $20.
Elapsed time of call: 6 minutes, 21 seconds (6:21).
JD

I have gone through so much with XM. I am so dissapointed because I love the radio service… at least I did. I havnt listened in a long time.
I called 6 times to cancel and get my refund of my year fee for 3 radios. I still am not cancelled apparently. I am going to call this number listed here and see if I get any service. They are not going to stay in business handling things like this

I just called to cancel again after canceling last month. Spent 2 hours on the phone with a very nice non-english speaking lady last month to cancel, or rather not let my service renew when it ended Jan 31st.
Checking my credit card statements, i see they charged me this past week for one month- random (I had a year subscription before.) This time I called and got through to an English speaking person who had to transfer me to what I can assume was India- where I wasn’t offered any upsells. He clearly saw were I canceled last month in the account. He claims it is canceled now and the money will be refunded within 48 hours on my credit card. We’ll see.

I too went through 45 min of holding in silence once I told the computer I wanted to cancel my account.
At the end of my 45 min wait I was awarded with a dial tone.
I have since found the Corporate Customer Relations dept. and got an native English speaking rep who was very helpful and didn’t try to hook me for more service.
Here’s the number 877.967.4672
The rep did ask how I got the number, and I told her a friend of a friend works there. And considering the amount of inconvenience the offered me in canceling I though I’d return the favor.

Found this blog when I searched for information on cancelling XM radio subscriptions. Despite the glee in discovering I was not alone in my frustration, there was no real solution offered here – except to keep calling. As we don’t have a land-line and have a cell plan with limited minutes, I’ve had to limit my time on hold to 30 minutes – 3 different times! When the website offered no way to cancel the account, I sent an email requesting an immediate response (got none).
After calling my credit card company to appeal for their help, I did some more searching online and found this number to call when you want to cancel your XM service. (877-967-4672 Corporate Customer Relations Dept.) The woman who answered spoke English (as her first language), asked for my “radio id”, didn’t argue when I told her we simply didn’t use the service and didn’t offer free months or try to upsell me. She said that my credit card will be credited within 72 hours for the full 2 years which had been automatically renewed.
877-967-4672

I’m currently on hold with XM trying to cancel my account. It’s been 39 minutes, and I haven’t talked to a human yet, regardless of language. Damn they suck. I just cancelled the credit card too, that took about 5 minutes.

My prepaid service is up on December 4th so it is a no-brainier to not renew.
I spent 45 minutes on the phone today with XM trying to cancel my account… holy cow! Was that an irritating experience, you just cannot call and say, “I’d like to please cancel my service.”
And the condescending nature of this new merger is something to be desired. Sirius says the music is the same but it isn’t; content replays itself as often as a ClearChannel terrestrial station. Sirrius says that Outlaw Country = Nashville and Alt Nation = Ethel… BUT THEY AREN’T THE SAME AT ALL!
I had been a subscriber since 2003 but not any more. RIP satellite radio. You’re doing the exact same things now which turned all of us off to terrestrial radio.

I had this problem when I called last year. I actually just wanted my rate reduced, which I eventually did, but only after threatening to cancel, being transferred a few times, and placed on hold for ~45 minutes. The best part – NO HOLD MUSIC. You kind of forget that you’re on hold when there’s just silence (the point?).
However, I called yesterday to cancel and really didn’t have a problem. Took me about 15 minutes. She tried to upsell and keep me, but you can’t blame them for that. Definitely a foreign call center, but not too bad of an accent. The rep even used her real (incomprehensible) name, not “Hallo mee name as… Barbara”.

You must not have Direct TV……I spent 2 hours on hold one night TRYING to get HBO and the Sunday ticket added. If Direct TV didn’t have the Sunday ticket I would be gone.
PS – you get XM free with Direct TV (only on your TV).

My XM disconnection experience wasn’t nearly this bad. Got through easily, could *almost* understand the lady at the other end without straining, then she tried to wheel and deal with me on service, offering up to half a year free, basically, compared to regular prices.
I don’t miss it.